Ball Aerospace and Technologies has successfully completed a comprehensive pre-shipment review for STPSat-2, the first spacecraft for the Department of Defense (DoD) Space Test Program Standard Interface Vehicle (STP-SIV) program. Launch of the vehicle is scheduled for the second quarter of 2010 on a Minotaur IV rocket from Alaska’s Kodiak Launch Complex.
The pre-shipment review was completed on Sept. 17, following assembly and performance testing of the standard vehicle and standard payload interface which is designed to accelerate the DoD’s space technology efforts.
The testing also included functional and environmental testing of the STPSat-2 payload suite, which is comprised of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Space Phenomenology Experiment and ONR’s Ocean Data Telemetry Microsat Link.
“Completion of the first STP vehicle is a tremendous achievement toward the goal of increasing access to space for future DoD payloads,” said David L. Taylor, Ball Aerospace president and CEO.
“Ball Aerospace is confident the repeatable design used for STP-SIV program will help pave the way for reducing cost, schedule and risk on DoD missions.”
STP-SIV is capable of supporting a variety of experimental and risk reduction payloads and multiple launch vehicles. Using flight-proven hardware for the spacecraft (and developmental hardware only on the experimental payloads), each bus can accommodate up to four independent payloads, each one having its own separate power and data interface.
Ball Aerospace has already begun production on the second STP-SIV, designated STPSat-3, following a contract award from the Air Force Space Development and Test Wing Space Development Group at Kirtland Air Force Base, Albuquerque, N.M., earlier this year.
